Hippocrates first described what would become known as the Hippocratic face (facies Hippocratica in Latin):

"[If the patient's facial] appearance may be described thus: the nose sharp, the eyes sunken, the temples fallen in, the ears cold and drawn in and their lobes distorted, the skin of the face hard, stretched and dry, and the colour of the face pale or dusky.… and if there is no improvement within [a prescribed period of time], it must be realized that this sign portends death."

My beloved mother died on August 18, 2010, at the Hospice of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio. She was 90 years old.